XI. A MILD, yielding, character appears in the outline of the forehead, the eye, and the middle line of the mouth, which, however, has some error in drawing, and is, consequently, heterogeneous to the other features; as is, also, the tip of the nose. The eyebones ought to be some trifle sharper. XII. THE perfect countenance of a politician. Faces which are thus pointed from the eyes to the chin always have lengthened noses, and never possess large, open, powerful, and piercing eyes. Their firmness partakes of obstinacy, and they rather follow intricate plans than the dictates of common sense. SHADES are the weakest, most vapid, but, at the same time, when the light is at a proper distance, and falls properly on the countenance to take the profile accurately, the truest representation that can be given of man.-The weakest, for it is not positive, it is only something negative, only the boundary line of half the countenance. The truest, because it is the immediate expression of nature, such as not the ablest painter is capable of drawing, by hand, after nature. What can be less the image of a living man than a shade? Yet how full of speech! Little gold, but the purest. The shade contains but one line; no motion, light, colour, height or depth; no eye, ear, nostril or cheek; but a very small part of the lip; yet how decisively is it significant! The reader soon shall judge, be convinced, and exercise his judgment. Drawing and painting, it is probable, originated in shades. No They express, as I have said, but little; but the little they do express is exact. art can attain to the truth of the shade, taken with precision. Let a shade be taken after nature, with the greatest accuracy, and, with equal accuracy, be afterward reduced, upon fine transparent oil paper. Let a profile, of the same size, be taken, by the greatest master, in his happiest moment; then let the two be laid upon each other, and the difference will immediately be evident. I have often made the experiment, but never found that the best efforts of art could equal nature, either in freedom, or in precision; but that there was always something more or less than nature. Nature is sharp and free: whoever studies sharpness more than freedom will be hard, and whoever studies freedom more than sharpness will become diffuse, and indeterminate. I can admire him only who, equally studious of her sharpness and freedom, acquires equal certainty and impartiality. To attain this, artist, imitator of humanity, first exercise yourself in drawing shades; afterward copy them by hand, and, next, compare and correct. Without this, you will with difficulty discover the grand secret of uniting precision and freedom. I have collected more physiognomonical knowledge from shades alone than from every other kind of portrait; have improved physiognomonical sensation more by the sight of them, than by the contemplation of ever mutable nature. Shades collect the distracted attention, confine it to an outline, and thus render the observation more simple, easy, and precise. -The observation consequently the compa rison. Physiognomy has no greater, more incontrovertible certainty of the truth of its object than that imparted by shade. If the shade, according to the general sense and decision of all men, can decide so much concerning character, how much more must the living body, the whole appearance, and action of the man! If the shade be oracular, the voice of truth, the word of God, what must the living original be, illuminated by the spirit of God! Hundreds have asked, hundreds will continue to ask, "What can be expected from mere shades?" Yet no shade can be viewed by any one of these hundred who will not |